Australia's Best NBN Plans, Ranked By Speed

When it comes to the NBN, we know that plans and providers are not all equal. Despite standard speed tiers, the performance in our homes varies quite a bit, especially during the evening peak times.

As you've probably heard, the ACCC is trying to counter this by introducing industry guidance that said that providers need to put average evening speeds on their website so that consumers can judge performance alongside price.

So far we've seen two responses from the providers. Many are now publishing seemingly accurate speed data for each NBN speed tier, while others are merely publishing the minimum speed spec as laid out by the ACCC. The thing is, the minimum spec is always significantly lower than the results from the providers who are putting in the effort, making you wonder why a provider would choose not to show real results. What are they hiding?

The good news is that some providers are doing a great job of delivering the speeds that their customers are paying for, and we'd like to call them out.

Note: Our interactive tables may take a few seconds to generate. Thanks for your patience!

Aussie Broadband

If you're not familiar with Aussie Broadband, now is the time to check them out. It is one of the NBN service providers who seems to pride itself on doing a great job. This includes not offering NBN 12 plans, which we all know are the curse of Australian internet.

For the remaining speed tiers, Aussie has the best average peak-time speeds for NBN 100 plans at 90Mbps, and the second best speed for NBN 50 and NBN 25 plans.

iiNet

iiNet NBN speeds are best for households that want a good speed, but aren't looking for the best of the best. The standout speed tier is NBN 50, where iiNet maintains an average 44Mbps during the busy hours in the evening. Its basic NBN 12 speed is also pretty good, while its NBN 100 speed is a little off the pace at 82.7Mbps.

TPG

Like its stablemate iiNet, TPG average peak speeds are pretty good, especially if you'd prefer NBN 50 (average 44Mbps) over NBN 100 (78Mbps). It also offers great NBN 12 plan speeds, if you're into that sort of thing.

Internode

Trusty old Internode. For the longest time, the name Internode has been synonymous with quality internet, and its average NBN evening speeds confirm that it is still an internet provider worth a closer look.

Internode reports the industry's best NBN 50 speed and is not far off the pace for NBN 100 plans. If there is a weakness, it is on its NBN 25 plans, so be sure to focus on the faster options.

Dodo

Surprised? To be honest we were a bit as well. Dodo isn't a brand you tend to associate with performance, but the numbers speak for themselves. You can only choose NBN 12, 25 or 50 plans (Dodo doesn't sell NBN Premium plans) and the pick of the bunch is the NBN 25 plans, where Dodo has the fastest average speed for that tier at a remarkable 24Mbps.

Telstra and Optus

Rounding out the group is two of Australia's biggest providers who report suspiciously identical speeds for each tier. Both report average speeds of 9Mbps, 20Mbps, 40Mbps and 80Mbps, or roughly about 80 percent of the maximum speed across the board.

Something tells me that these figures are a bit blurry around the edges, however after both received expensive slaps on the wrist from the ACCC recently, perhaps they are just playing it safe.

Joe Hanlon is Publisher at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website. He’s been writing about phones and plans for far too long.

This story has been updated since its original publication.

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